


Running Parallel

by iceprinceofbelair



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Harry Potter Next Generation, Mentions of Child Abuse and Neglect, Metamorphmagus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-18
Updated: 2015-03-18
Packaged: 2018-03-18 11:50:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3568577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iceprinceofbelair/pseuds/iceprinceofbelair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Teddy stumbles across something Dumbledore left behind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Running Parallel

Sometimes, he wonders if he has his father's eyes, his mother's dimples. He can't remember when he first started changing but he knows that he hasn't always looked this way. Harry has heaps of pictures of him during his first few weeks and Teddy will often sit for hours just looking and trying to see the similarities. But it's agony because he can't be sure.

Perhaps he can see his mother in the arch of his eyebrow but he can't be sure. Perhaps that's his father's nose on his chubby face but he can't be sure. He can see just as much of Harry and Ginny in himself as he can his own mother and father and it hurts in his stomach to know that he'll never be sure, never be certain.

He's grateful for Harry and Ginny and the kids. He really is. He's grateful for Grandmother Andromeda - Merlin rest her soul - and the Weasleys. It's true. But he doesn't think it's quite the same.

Harry gets it and for that Teddy is eternally thankful. Harry understands what it's like to feel alone. Teddy knows the story as well as the next kid - he knows how Harry became the Boy Who Lived. But Teddy knows more than that. Teddy knows that Harry was locked in a cupboard for ten years, was denied food, was manhandled from A to B and punished for things he couldn't control. Teddy knows that Harry had no friends before Hogwarts. Teddy knows that Harry considers Hogwarts his first true home.

Teddy knows this because Harry told him one night when he came into Teddy's room in the early hours of the morning to find his Godson still awake, staring at an old picture of his parents not long after they married which Harry had recovered from their old home and put in a frame in Teddy's room. He hadn't really expected it. Harry has always been very private about what he went through all those years ago so hearing him speak so openly about his treatment had been strange.

But it helped. Because now Teddy knows that he can go to Harry with anything. Harry will understand.

~

He's been sitting there for hours, perhaps days, he's not sure, by the time Headmistress McGonagall finds him. He's not sure what time it is but he thinks it might be morning. Has he missed breakfast? His first lesson? He wouldn't mind if he did. He hasn't cared about History since first year.

"Mr Lupin," she begins sternly, her lips pressed into a thin line. He barely acknowledges her. He's vaguely aware that he's being rude and that he's probably well on the path to the scolding of a lifetime but, before she can say anything, something distracts her and she falls silent. Teddy doesn't even look her way.

"Mr Lupin," she tries again and her voice is softer this time. Teddy swipes nonchalantly at a tear on his cheek. "I think perhaps you should join me in my office."

Teddy meets her eye briefly. He's never seen McGonagall look so gentle before. Well, as gentle as he thinks the Headmistress will ever look. He makes no effort to stand. She frowns. 

"I shall return promptly, Mr Lupin."

Her voice is harsh again and Teddy looks away as she sweeps from the room. The tears are clogging his chest. He can scarcely breathe but crying would ruin it. He doesn't want to cry. 

Time doesn't even seem to pass before another figure comes into view in the mirror, crouching down behind him and wrapping its arms around his waist. Harry pulls Teddy onto his lap like he weighs nothing at all and, for a moment, the image vanishes and Teddy wants to fight. But then he's settled on crossed legs with Harry's chest pressed against his back and he can see his parents looking down at him and that feeling washes over him again - the one that makes him feel like he exists in a vacuum, like the world isn't there.

Only the pressure of Harry's arms around his torso suggest otherwise.

"It's not fair," he says and his voice cracks painfully.

Harry rests his chin on Teddy's head. "I know."

Teddy swallows thickly. He doesn't like it here but he also doesn't want to ever leave. This place makes him so unbearably sad but strangely peaceful at the same time. He had thought for a moment that it might have been a cruel trick played by one of the upper year students but McGonagall wouldn't have called Harry in for something so trivial. This is something else.

"Can you see them too?" He asks. He hates how small and vulnerable he feels. The way his voice is trembling and his eyes are watering makes the tips of his hair flush a light pink. He hates that Harry has to see him like this but, at the same time, he'd rather him than anyone else.

"Yes," Harry's voice sounds wistful and choked. "Yes, I see them. Are they all you see?"

Teddy nods miserably. 

"They're more in the background for me," Harry admits quietly. "I can see my Mum and Dad, yours, Sirius- everybody. But do you know who else I see?"

Teddy sniffles pitifully and tears his eyes away from the wretched mirror just in time to see his Godfather's green eyes shine with tears. He blinks and whispers, "Who?"

Harry smiles. "You."

That takes Teddy aback somewhat. "But- I'm here..."

"The mirror doesn't just show those we've lost, Ted," Harry explains, giving Teddy's middle a squeeze. "As it was explained to me when I was not much younger than you, it shows us nothing more or less than the deepest and most desperate desires of our hearts. You see the family you never had. I used to see my parents too. I can still see them. But I can see you and Ginny and Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron and everybody I love all around me. What can you deduce from that?"

Teddy rests his head on Harry's chest, still gazing at the mirror sideways and trying to keep the tears at bay. "You want us to be safe?"

Harry smiles. "I do. Safe, happy; that's what I want. More than anything."

It's too much. It's all too much. Harry cradles him tightly when sobs start to tear through him. He doesn't know who he is, what he needs, where he belongs. He doesn't know anything but Harry and the pain searing through him at the sight of his mother and father gazing at him with such love that he'd never gotten the chance to see. He knows they would have loved him just like Harry does.

He doesn't notice Harry waving his wand but the chocolate frog card appears in his hand as if by magic. It had taken years of searching - he'd spent all of his pocket money on chocolate frogs and shared them with Lily, James, and Albus on the understanding that, if any of them found this card, they'd let him keep it. In the end, it was Rosie who'd unwrapped it. When she'd called for him, he'd hurtled downstairs, terrified that they'd disappear before he could see. But there they were, his mum and dad. His mother's hair was a beautiful shade of lialac, the scars on his father's face a pale pink. He'd gazed at them for the longest time.

The card is a little fuzzy at the corners now but it remains his pride and joy and, somehow, they're always there when he looks.

"They're always with you, Teddy," Harry whispers into his hair, scooping him up in a manner which is entirely undignified for a thirteen year old. But he doesn't protest. His arms wind around Harry's shoulders instinctively and he buries his face in his neck so he won't be tempted to look back as his Godfather carries him through the door and away from the ghosts his parents have left behind.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not quite sure of what happened to the Mirror of Erised (is it mentioned? I can't remember) but, for the story to work, I figure Dumbledore locked it away somewhere in the castle he presumed nobody would ever find it.


End file.
